Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Last month, I visited the vehicle salesman. Dare I say, “Father knows Best” this month?

(The Buddha said to Sariputra:)
All of you
Are my children.
I am your father.

You were under the fires of many sufferings
For the past innumerable kalpas.
Therefore, I saved you
From the triple world [with expedients].

I once told you that you had attained extinction.
But you only birth and death
[By that extinction.]
The extinction you attained was not the true one.
What you should do now is
Obtain the wisdom of the Buddha.

The Bodhisattvas in this multitude
Should hear
With one mind
The true teaching of the Buddhas.

The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones,
Say only expediently [that some are not Bodhisattvas]
To tell the truth,
All living beings taught by them are Bodhisattvas.

Sons of the Buddha: Bodhisattvas.